Diana Maus art and life

March 28, 2009

Relighting the fire, continued

Okay, okay, after reading ALL the comments on Chris Guillebeau’s “HOW TO WRITE A LIFE LIST.” I will attempt to relight the fire I referred to in my previous post. Here is the first thing on This Failed Optimist’s new Life List. First I had to admit that I wanted it and then I had to write it down.

Write a book.

Now, I don’t know how to write a book but I found this quote today that should help a bit…

Practice what you don’t know

“You need a particular kind of practice— deliberate practice —to develop expertise. When most people practice, they focus on things they already know how to do. Deliberate practice is different. It entails considerable, specific, and sustained efforts to do something you can’t do well—or even at all. Research across domains shows that it is only by working at what you can’t do that you turn into the expert you want to become.”
— Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, Professor of Psychology,
Florida State University

I am only inspired at this point by the thought of digging into something I have to learn about from the get-go. “What you already know” can get a boring after 40+ years. I admit I’ve cheated…I’ve been reading writer’s mags and authors’ books on writing for a couple years already. And I have more writers’ feeds than artists. I love art but I need more. I’m thinking non-fiction, I have no idea how people write fiction! An amazing feat.

I am in awe of a good book, a good story, and even a great blog post. A book would be something I can sink my teeth into for a good long time. And now that I know that all (good) writers use editors, I don’t have to stress about forgotten rules of grammar and punctuation. It does leave you after awhile, if unused. When I was editing magazines, I was very good at catching errors. It’s amazing how fast you lose skills you used at your job every day for 18 years.